Towards the new generation of web knowledge
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720610716665 |
| Date | 01 October 2006 |
| Pages | 406-422 |
| Published date | 01 October 2006 |
| Author | Fefie Dotsika,Keith Patrick |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Towards the new generation of
web knowledge
Fefie Dotsika and Keith Patrick
Business, Information, Organisation and Process Management Research Centre,
Westminster Business School, University of Westminster, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – As the web evolves its purpose and nature of its use are changing. The purpose of the
paper is to investigate whether the web can provide for the competing stakeholders, who are similarly
evolving and who increasingly see it as a significant part of their business.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts an exploratory and reviewing approach to the
emerging trends and patterns emanating from the web’s changing use and explores the underpinning
technologies and tools that facilitate this use and access. It examines the future and potential of
web-based knowledge management (KM) and reviews the emerging web trends, tools, and enabling
technologies that will provide the infrastructure of the next generation web.
Findings – The research carried out provides an independent framework for the capturing, accessing
and distributing of web knowledge. This framework retains the semantic mark-up, a feature that we
deem indispensable for the future of KM, employing web ontologies to structure organisational
knowledge and semantic text processing for the extraction of knowledge from web sites.
Practical implications – As a result it was possible to identify the implications of integrating the
two aspects of web-based KM, namely the business-organisational-users’ perspective and that of the
enabling web technologies.
Originality/value – The proposed framework accommodates the collaborative tools and services
offered by Web 2.0, acknowledging the fact that knowledge-based systems are shared, dynamic,
evolving resources, whose underlying knowledge model requires careful management due to its
constant changing.
Keywords Knowledge management, Modelling, Knowledge sharing, Worldwideweb, Semantics
Paper type Viewpoint
1. Introduction
Technology has been heralded as the answer to our information requirements, a charge
that has been extended to meet our knowledge requirements as well. Intranets have
been cited as examples of such a solution and success, so have web-enabled databases
and portals. But to what extent does this address the needs of the user in the creation
and particularly the ability to search for and share this information and knowledge?
And how effectively does this facilitate the creation of new knowledge? It is our
proposition that users and organisations need to beware of the balancing act of
successful web-based search and sharing.
The web was originally designed as a text and image repository for human use. Its
unprecedented expansion however has triggered a significant increase in the
expectations for web-based information retrieval, knowledge sharing and collaborative
working. Search engine indices have become too large, with every search producing an
enormous amount of results. Search engines are often limited by poor indexing,
ranking of pages according to inappropriate metrics, the absence of keywords on
relevant pages and inaccessibility to distributed information repositories of different
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VINE
36,4
406
VINE: The journal of information and
knowledge management systems
Vol. 36 No. 4, 2006
pp. 406-422
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720610716665
formats, such as databases. At the end of every query the searchers are inundated with
a great amount of links that they need to go through in order to gather the knowledge
they require. Companies often try to second-guess the “magic” words used by
searchers, or employ search engine optimisers. Organisations often end up paying for
content that could be found for free on the web.
Looking into web knowledge search and sharing, users can search for knowledge
using a number of means: following a path of hypertext links, using search engines,
web-directories or intelligent agent software. Based on the actor of the search two
distinct approaches can be identified: the end-user practice and the automated
approach. The first one (also termed “cognitive” approach) is considered the traditional
method and relies on the user going through websites in order to gather the required
knowledge. The second method is the technical equivalent of the same process and
relies on intelligent agents (“bots”) for the gathering of knowledge. Each method has its
advantages and disadvantages and, depending on the task at hand, each is associated
with particular quality and suitability issues and/or specific limitations.
A further reflection is required when we observe the ubiquitous and pervasive
nature of technology throughout our lives, which impacts on both our working
practices and attitude toward that technology, in terms of how it is used and it
continues to evolve. There is a shift from a specialised, centralised and controlled
application and implementation of technological solutions to one that sees distributed,
and multiple solutions that are local and enterprise-wide. An additional shift is from a
smaller number of centralised specialists to increasingly involved and sophisticated
end-users. This confronts the issues of technological design and development (what
should be made to fit what or whom and should the user fit the system/software or the
reverse) with intrinsic implications for developers, users and organisations alike. It is
not untypical to organise around business processes with a tendency to embed them
within rigid bureaucracies with the inherent procedures and rules, technology systems,
and structures such as ERP and SAP systems. So if for some reason, the process needs
to be changed, it becomes very difficult to make any adjustments because so much
structure has been wrapped around it. Allee (1997) saw the need where strategies are
human-centred and not technology centred and for a culture that addresses and
supports knowledge creation, sharing and learning.
These technological shifts can be seen to be further reflected in the changing nature
of the economy from manufacturing to knowledge and information-based economics,
which focus more toward productivity, new products and services, new modes of
delivery/supply, time-based competition, and shorter product life cycles. This eco nomy
is global in terms of both the market-place and the internet/web-mediated
market-space which is engendering a workforce characterised by three significant
types of worker:
(1) data workers who process and disseminate organisation’s paperwork;
(2) information workers who primarily create and process information; and
(3) knowledge workers who design products or services, or create new knowledge
for the organisation (Laudon and Laudon, 2005).
This growth in knowledge work and knowledge workers requires not only the ability
to find and access information and knowledge, but also ability to share this
synchronously and asynchronously in terms of both time and location. Newell et al.
Towards the new
generation of
web knowledge
407
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